Russia

Our Research & Offerings on Russia

Nuclear weapons continue to be essential for U.S. national security and will continue to play an irreplaceable role in deterring a large-scale attack against the U.S. homeland. Nuclear weapons in the hands of U.S. adversaries and potential adversaries are the only weapons that pose an existential threat to the nation. The Trump Administration will have a unique…

When President-elect Donald Trump enters office in January 2017 he will inherit a transatlantic security environment with major challenges. Russia has used military force to change borders in Europe—something that has not happened since World War II. Since 2008, it has invaded two of its neighbors and it occupies thousands of square miles of territory in Ukraine and…

The White House has announced a short-notice trip to Europe for November 15 to 18. President Barack Obama will start the trip in Greece, where he will meet with President Prokopios Pavlopoulo and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before traveling on to Germany.
Greece, a NATO member since 1952, hosts an important U.S. naval base at Souda Bay on the island of Crete. In the…

President Obama will travel to Europe from November 15–18, starting in Greece before traveling to Germany. In his sixth visit to Germany, Obama will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the leaders of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Germany is an important security partner of the United States and the largest economy in Europe. Because decisions made by…

As a candidate, Barack Obama called ballistic missile defense programs “unproven” and vowed to cut them.[1] As President, Barack Obama eventually had to appreciate the value that missile defense brings to the U.S. strategic posture and allied relationships. The Obama Administration initially cancelled some of the most important missile defense programs that were started…

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a debate over the legal status of the Caspian Sea: Is it a sea, or is it a lake? And to whom does it belong? The outcome of this debate will have a major impact on the way energy resources are extracted and transported, and by whom—which could have a major impact on U.S. economic and security interests in the region.…

In the night of February 26 to 27, 2014, small groups of armed men, who later acquired the labels “little green men,” and even “polite green men” (which were anything but), appeared across Crimea.[1] They corralled Ukrainian forces in their bases, making it plain that any attempt to leave would be met with violence; they took over communications masts and studios,…

Sometime in the mid-1990s, British Prime Minister John Major reportedly asked Russian President Boris Yeltsin to describe the Russian economy in one word. Yeltsin replied, “Good.” Seeking greater detail, Major asked Yeltsin if he could describe it in two words. Yeltsin replied, “Not good.”
While this old joke is probably a myth, the current state of the Russian economy…

The 2016 NATO Summit will be held on July 8 and 9 in Warsaw. This is a critical time for the Alliance. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine, forcefully changing the borders of Europe for the first time since 1945. This invasion jarred many in Western Europe and the U.S. who had viewed Russia through rose-colored glasses even after the invasion of Georgia in 2008.
Today,…

The upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw is an opportunity for the alliance to provide realistic and meaningful support to Ukraine. It has been over 28 months since Russia invaded Ukraine. Since that time, Russia has annexed Crimea, consolidated its position in the Black Sea, and created a frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s invasion has cost 10,000 lives and…

For the Russian economy, winter has come early this year. After cruising at a respectable 3–4 percent rate of growth earlier this decade, Russia’s pace of expansion sharply decelerated toward the middle of 2012. According to Alexei Ulyukayev, the minster of economic development, the economy contracted for the first time since the 2008 recession during the first quarter of…

Twenty-two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is rebuilding its strength and is once again rising in regional influence. In the military, economic, and political spheres, Russia is preparing to project its power across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the North Pacific. It is strengthening relationships in the Middle East, especially with Iran and…

The recent attempt to help Russia out of economic
difficulty ranks as one of the most spectacular failures of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the wake of a $22 billion
international loan package, Russia is in an economic morass. The
only achievements of President Boris Yeltsin's administration--a
stable currency and a low inflation rate--have evaporated.…

On July 16, the presidents of Russia and China
signed a Treaty for Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation
in Moscow.1 This treaty is the
first such agreement between these two Eurasian powers since Mao
Tse-tung signed a treaty with Joseph Stalin of the U.S.S.R. in
1950, four months before the outbreak of the Korean War. That
treaty had been driven by…

It's never fun to admit failure. But Russia's 13 percent flat
tax forces me to confess a certain degree of incompetence. For 10
years, I've been working in Washington to replace our convoluted
tax code with a simple and fair flat tax. But as every taxpayer can
attest, my efforts have not borne fruit.
Yet in Russia, President Vladimir Putin -- the former head of…

It is perhaps fitting that the Cold War finally began to crack apart in a place called Iceland.
It was October 1986, and President Reagan flew to Reykjavik to meet Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Our side didn’t expect much from the talks. They were intended to give the leaders a chance to get to know each other better and lay some groundwork for future talks, planned…

After three months of mass street demonstrations, the Ukrainian people succeeded in ousting their corrupt and incompetent president, the Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych. On February 22, the Ukrainian parliament acted in favor of the people it represents by granting amnesty to all political prisoners, bringing back the constitution of 2004 (which reduces the powers of the…

December marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s a fitting time, then, to take stock of what was achieved — and what failed — in Eurasia over the last two decades.
The Obama administration has tried to “reset” U.S. relations with Russia. But the recent threat by the Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, to shut down the U.S. supply line…

(Archived document, may contain errors)
854 September 12,1991 THE COUPS CONSEQUENCES FOR ECONOMIC REFORM
Leonid Grigoriev EL. Wiegand Fellow INTRODUCTION The failure of the
August 19 hard-line coup in the Soviet Union has trans formed the
political situation in that count ry, sweeping the Communist Party
from power and clearing the path for a rapid transition…

On October
10, 2002 Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., Research Fellow in Russian and
Eurasian Studies, hosted Michael Bleyzer and Edilberto Segura,
authors of the new Bleyzer Foundation book
Completing
the Economic Transition in FSU Countries,at the
Heritage Foundation's Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute
for International Studies.
The
Bleyzer…

Nuclear weapons continue to be essential for U.S. national security and will continue to play an irreplaceable role in deterring a large-scale attack against the U.S. homeland. Nuclear weapons in the hands of U.S. adversaries and potential adversaries are the only weapons that pose an existential threat to the nation. The Trump Administration will have a unique…

When President-elect Donald Trump enters office in January 2017 he will inherit a transatlantic security environment with major challenges. Russia has used military force to change borders in Europe—something that has not happened since World War II. Since 2008, it has invaded two of its neighbors and it occupies thousands of square miles of territory in Ukraine and…

The White House has announced a short-notice trip to Europe for November 15 to 18. President Barack Obama will start the trip in Greece, where he will meet with President Prokopios Pavlopoulo and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before traveling on to Germany.
Greece, a NATO member since 1952, hosts an important U.S. naval base at Souda Bay on the island of Crete. In the…

President Obama will travel to Europe from November 15–18, starting in Greece before traveling to Germany. In his sixth visit to Germany, Obama will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the leaders of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Germany is an important security partner of the United States and the largest economy in Europe. Because decisions made by…

As a candidate, Barack Obama called ballistic missile defense programs “unproven” and vowed to cut them.[1] As President, Barack Obama eventually had to appreciate the value that missile defense brings to the U.S. strategic posture and allied relationships. The Obama Administration initially cancelled some of the most important missile defense programs that were started…

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a debate over the legal status of the Caspian Sea: Is it a sea, or is it a lake? And to whom does it belong? The outcome of this debate will have a major impact on the way energy resources are extracted and transported, and by whom—which could have a major impact on U.S. economic and security interests in the region.…

In the night of February 26 to 27, 2014, small groups of armed men, who later acquired the labels “little green men,” and even “polite green men” (which were anything but), appeared across Crimea.[1] They corralled Ukrainian forces in their bases, making it plain that any attempt to leave would be met with violence; they took over communications masts and studios,…

The 2016 NATO Summit will be held on July 8 and 9 in Warsaw. This is a critical time for the Alliance. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine, forcefully changing the borders of Europe for the first time since 1945. This invasion jarred many in Western Europe and the U.S. who had viewed Russia through rose-colored glasses even after the invasion of Georgia in 2008.
Today,…

The upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw is an opportunity for the alliance to provide realistic and meaningful support to Ukraine. It has been over 28 months since Russia invaded Ukraine. Since that time, Russia has annexed Crimea, consolidated its position in the Black Sea, and created a frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s invasion has cost 10,000 lives and…

With a focus on Russia’s actions in the Baltic region and Eastern Europe, the July NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, offers an opportunity for NATO to re-focus on another area of recent Russian saber rattling, along Turkey’s borders. NATO needs to agree to a strategy that ensures that its southeastern flank remains secure and recognizes the vital role that Turkey plays for…

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